Market watch: Financial, cement stocks pull KSE-100 down

Benchmark index decreases 121.28 points to settle at 41,742.24

KARACHI: The KSE-100 index failed on Friday to break the ongoing bearish spell and continued to lose ground for the fourth straight day as stocks of financial institutions and cement companies came under selling pressure.

In the morning, trading began on a positive note, but later selling pressure emerged which pushed major stocks down. Exploration and production, cement and chemical stocks took a hit while fertiliser shares moved higher.

At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 121.28 points or 0.29% to settle at 41,742.24.

JS Global analyst Danish Ladhani said the market closed the week negative as the index hit an intra-day high of +142 points and low of -237 points.

"The market started on a positive note, but came under pressure in the second half," he said. "On the economic front, Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves fell 0.22% to $16.685 billion as of August 24. The reserves stood at $16.722 billion in the previous week."



Moreover, the Ministry of Energy has sent a proposal to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), seeking a 30% increase in gas prices for all consumer categories and 186% for domestic consumers of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines to bridge the company's revenue shortfall of Rs102 billion.

Financial and cement stocks drove the market down where selling pressure came from foreign institutions. From the banking sector, Habib Bank (-0.32%), MCB Bank (-1.19%) and United Bank (-1.01%) closed in the red.

From the cement sector, Lucky Cement (-1.94%), DG Khan Cement (-2.76%) and Fauji Cement (-1.56%) lost their share values.

Major heavyweights namely Habib Bank (-0.32%), Pakistan Petroleum (-0.02%), Oil and Gas Development Company (-0.59%), MCB Bank (-1.19%), United Bank (-1.01%) and Lucky Cement (-1.94%) cumulatively erased 87 points from the index.

Traded volumes dropped 17% to 160 million shares while the traded value decreased to $57 million. Top volume stocks were Unity Foods (+3.34%), Engro Polymer and Chemicals (+1.19%) and The Bank of Punjab (+0.17%).



"Moving forward, we expect the market to remain volatile and choppy with flows from local and foreign institutions providing direction," Ladhani said.

Overall, trading volumes decreased to 159.8 million shares compared with Thursday's tally of 191.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.1 billion.

Shares of 367 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 130 stocks closed higher, 215 declined while 22 remained unchanged.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 10.5 million shares, gaining Rs1.41 to close at Rs43.64. It was followed by Engro Polymer with 10.46 million shares, gaining Rs0.41 to close at Rs34.84 and The Bank of Punjab with 8.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.02 to close at Rs11.62.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs75.7 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.